Customer Ratings & Reviews

TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner First impression: My first impression of the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner is that it is an attractive, well-made portable air conditioner. The plastics seem strong, and the wheels roll really easy across carpets and tiles. The automatic vent operates smoothly and seems tight. And the buttons feel firm. The remote is a good size and simple to use. The buttons are clear and easy to determine the function of each one. What’s in the Box: • Air Conditioner • Window Install Kit • Drain Hose • User Manual • Remote Control • 2 Batteries Features: • 3-in-1 AC, Fan, and Dehumidifier • Powerful 7,000 BTU cooling capacity with multiple fan speeds • Smart features allow you to control your unit with the intuitive TCL Home App* or simple voice commands with Alexa and Google Assistant • Cools rooms up to 300 sq. ft. • It has a Dehumidifier mode. • Sets up in minutes with simple in-app instructions (installation kit included) • Glides from room to room with the handles and wheels • Keep your energy bill low with Sleep mode and the 24-Hour Timer • Designed to restart automatically after a power outage with Auto Restart • Includes a washable and reusable filter • Window Compatibility: Vertical sliding and horizontal sliding windows (no casement windows) with up to a 59-inch opening clearance. Technical Specifications: • Name: H7P38W • A/C Cooling Rate (BTU/hr): 7,000 BTU SACC • A/C Coverage Area (sq. ft.): 300 • Product Size (WxDxH): 15.30" x 24.80" x 14.00" • Product Weight: 49.30 lbs Setup: I have set up quite a few of these, and they are all very similar. Set up on the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner follows right along with them. The biggest difference between the portable air conditioners that I see is the window kit. The TCL has a very sturdy hose. That’s good, because that means it will do a much better job staying attached to the hose inlet and outlet adapters. And the Window slider kit is just as rugged as their commercial counterparts, yet is longer than the last one I used, easily fitting a wider window. After verifying that the drain caps are in place and the window kit was in place, the unit is ready to be used. At this point, you can use the remote and/or pair the air conditioner with the app. App: Getting the App set up was a bit of a challenge. TCL’s website says to use the TCL Home App. It even includes instructions with screenshots showing the TCL Home App. I tried using the TCL Home App but was unable to get the device to connect with the Air Conditioner. Then I looked in the User Manual and it said to do a search for “Smart Life – Smart Living.” I found that app and installed it. While I was going through the app, it found the air conditioner and allowed me to install it. The app is very basic, but I like that. When controlling a portable air conditioner, I don’t need all the features I have in my home air conditioner. It controls the power, temperature and fan speed, allows you to change modes, and sets a timer. It has a clean interface and responds instantly. And unlike the TCL Home app which only runs on 2.4 GHz, this app runs on both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Performance: My test started in the Master Bedroom. We turned off our home A/C and let the room warm up to 80°. We closed the door, and within 15 minutes it was comfortable, and at 30 minutes it cooled down to 70°. This air conditioner moved a lot of air for a smaller unit. Then I set the unit to 64°, the lowest temperature it can cool handle. In a short period of time, it got the room down to 64°. Next, we put it in our living room. This area is about 600 sq. ft., twice the size of TCL’s max coverage area. Running on high for 20 minutes dropped the room’s temperature by 1°. This is not a sealed room; it opens into the kitchen on one side and the stairwell on the other. But it was still able to lower the temp, even if only 1°. And while running on high, I could feel the air flow farther away than on some larger units I have used in the past. All of this is way above and beyond the published technical specifications of the TCL H7P38W. I didn’t expect it to budge the temperature, but I was pleasantly surprised. Conclusion: I have used quite a lot of portable air conditioners, from units smaller than this one to commercial units twice as large. Along the way, you get an idea of how a unit will perform before turning it on. But the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner is punching above its weight. It is far more powerful than what I expected from a unit this size. It has amazing cooling, amazing features, a very nice remote, and has built-in Wi-Fi so you can use an app and not have to be close to it. I don’t think there is a better portable air conditioner for the price. Despite the problem I had with the contradictions in the manuals for which app to use. I rate the TCL 7000 BTU Smart Portable Air Conditioner as 5 out of 5. I highly recommend this unit.

I have another portable Air Conditioner in another room, and the TCL one is much more sleek and small. First, it only has one hole for the air, and it means only one for the window too. Second the size is generally smaller. Not only is it small, but it also does blow cold air quickly. Though my use so far, it was able to cool down the room pretty fast. The main downside is that this only does cooling and drying, you don’t get any heat. If you’re just looking to cool this is a great choice, but if you also want to heat then this won’t work. You also get fairly basic setting, but not sure what else you need besides the temp and a few fan speeds. One thing I was excited about was being able to connect to my smart home with Matter. However, I couldn’t get it to work with Home Kit, and even after I got the app and setup on WIFI I still couldn’t get it to connect. Hopefully a future update fixes this, but right now you’re stuck using another app. Overall a good choice for an AC only without Matter it means you need another app.

I like this portable air conditional unit, it is a 3-in-1 unit, it functions as an AC, a fan, and as a dehumidifier. Its cooling capacity is powerful at 7,000 BTU. The outlet cold air measured at 39-degree F, this cool down my room very quickly. My central AC unit only provide 69-degree F of cold air. The specification says it can cool rooms up to 300 sq. ft. The unit is very easy to set up with the installation kit included. There is no need to connect the drain pipe. The unit is also very compact and only weight 50 lbs. Very easy to move around because it has wheels attached at the bottom and handles at each side of the unit. The best part is that this unit is very energy efficient, I measure the power factor is at 0.96 where value of 1 is perfect. Its side panel said it consumes 11A of current which is 11A x 110V=1210 Watt but when I measure using Watt meter, it shows 1065 Watt. Less is better, no complain here. One of the features I like is that the outlet vent is closed when powered off and it double as flap to sweep the air up and down. However, to enable flap sweeping, you must use the included remote control. The lowest setting for the thermostat is 64F, once the room reach that temperature, it will switch off the compressor to save energy. Another feature I like is that this unit is designed to restart automatically after a power outage, this is very useful if you are asleep or not around during brief power outage.

I needed a way to cool a small space such as a tiny home and came across the TCL 300 sqft 7000 BTU 3 in 1 smart portable air conditioner. I live in the great state of Florida and summer comes very early in the year and being that it’s a tiny space it heats up really quickly. I didn’t want to put unnecessary holes in the floor of ceiling of my building so I decided to give this unit a try and I can report it didn’t disappoint. The TCL 7000 BTU air conditioner has three functions. The first function is to cool or condition the air to provide acceptable living temperatures. The next function is to act as a fan that helps keep air moving around your space to prevent stagnant air. The final function is as a dehumidifier. If you live in the south where we have high humidity levels this is a must have function and if you know anything about a tiny home, high humidity levels inside are a problem. With the living room and kitchen combined being around 250 sqft the TCL portable air conditioner is the perfect size. Setting up this unit was extremely easy. First download the app, this allows you to remotely operate the unit. Second, locate a window to exhaust the hot air out of. Utilizing the supplied parts, exhaust your TCL out of the window. Next, figure out if you’re going to use dehumidifier options. If so, set this up utilizing the provided hose. Finally turn on the unit and enjoy the cold air coming out of the TCL 7000 BTU portable AC. As for my experience the TCL air conditioner does an amazing job. It cools my space easily and perfectly providing a comfortable temperature. At night I find myself turning up the temps due to the temperature drop. I can move this unit between my living room and bedroom making it extremely portable. I will be purchasing another unit because with both together I’ll have the perfect living conditions. This unit will save me lots of money over installing a split unit. All in all, I will recommend the TCL 300 sqft 7000 BTU 3 in 1 air conditioner. Due to its cost and size, you can easily use this in small spaces. You will not be disappointed in this little chill box. So go ahead and pic you one up.

I will open this review with the primary reason for giving it two stars. It is unfortunately what I expect when I think of this name brand simply because of the price point. You get what you pay for. I inspected the unit upon arrival by taking off exterior panels, checking filter ease of removability for cleaning, and generally making sure everything was intact. I was horrified to find that a significant percentage of the interior cooling fins were badly damaged. I took a double check at the box the unit arrived in as well as the plastic housing that I removed to expose these fins. Nothing else was damaged. The conclusion that I can draw from this is that it was assembled like this in the factory. Which means there is little or no quality control. If there was quality control, someone looked at this and said “meh, good enough” and shipped it. I understand the purpose of these cooling fins and I know that the amount damaged won’t hugely affect the performance of the unit, but it was jaw-dropping to see in a brand new machine out of the box. I sent photos of this to the manufacturer and there response was “the affected area appears minimal, at least from what I see in the photos, and should not have a noticeable impact on performance.” I’ll post the photos here and you can judge for yourself. Be mindful of the quality of the product you can expect to receive. All that being said, it does function as intended. It’s quieter than I expected, spins up quickly, and begins to cool rapidly. I love the smart functionality so I can control it from my phone or the included remote. The included window kit fit well with my horizontally sliding windows. I do wish I could turn the temperature lower though.

Everything you need is included. The box is conveniently designed to just separate, making it easy to remove the actual A/C unit out, which is welcome for people with bad backs. Connect the duct to the slot and window attachment by screwing the pieces onto each end, and then the click into the window panel. The included window installation piece was plenty wide to bridge our double sized window, but either way, the window we wanted to install the AC was a single pane corner window. I did have to cut excess panel off, but that was easily done. After you’ve sized the window panel, there is included weather sealing foam to improve the seal. Once installed, hit the power button and done. Our home AC unit malfunctioned, turning our home in south Texas into a big oven. We installed this in our master bedroom and the room cooled down within 10 minutes from 82 degrees to 72. Rolling wheels make moving the unit around rooms or into storage a breeze. The vents automatically close when you turn the unit off, which probably helps with protecting the internals. Mainly in our house, it prevented my kids from accidentally dropping stuff into the AC while we had the unit off. Very easy install for someone who doesn’t do much handy work, and worked really well in south Texas.

I can't sleep without my room being cold...normally a fan has been the answer. The problem with a fan is it hits once specific area. I was excited to try out this TCL smart portable air conditioner. While not without it's flaws, the portable air conditioner does a great job of cooling my room very fast. Setup had it's fair share of pains. Putting the filter together was a major headache. while I screwed one end of the tube relatively easy, screwing the other end of the tube that connects to the air conditioner itself was a drag. Maybe it was just me, or the tube I received, but it took a long time. Way too long. Once I got it screwed in, installing the filter in my window was another pain...but that may just be because of how my room is setup. Once I got through those two hang up the rest of the setup was relatively easy. While the AC has an app, once connected and setup, you can get it going with the included remote control. To start, it was kind of loud. I'm sure it had to be as my room was originally relatively warm, but it can get loud. As my room got cooler, which, didn't take long, the sound decreased. As for it's ability to cool the room..it made a huge impact. Normally I keep my fan on high pointed at my bed. In my computer chair, it's unrecognizable. With the AC, I can feel the cool air anywhere in my room. Once I got the AC working without the app, The AC has multiple methods of going in to pairing mode, I had to try them all a couple times before it went it become discoverable. Once it did, it connected fairly fast. I then had access to all the settings from my phone. It could be quieter, it could have been easier to setup, with that said the TCL 3-in-1 Smart Portable Air Conditioner chilled my whole room in a matter of minutes. That should be the deciding factor in purchasing an AC. I'd strongly recommend this one.

Purchased to help keep the kitchen at a more comfortable temperature. Our window AC’s do a good job covering the bedrooms and living room, but walking into the kitchen was like walking into a heatwave. This unit while smaller, does a good job at keeping it bearable. Pros: Small and pretty lightweight overall, fairly quiet, gets nice and cool, remote, WiFi, easy to setup/install/use. Cons: The vent/louvers are on top rather than the front of the unit. The louvers do not move while on, making the air blow only to one area (I manually adjust them to blow lower). Haven’t been able to get the timer to work correctly through WiFi.

Chose this over some other brands - was not familiar with TCL air conditioners. So far it works great in a small bedroom. It is quiet. It does not shake the whole house like a typical window AC. The trade-off is that does not blast arctic cold air. The reason I purchased this model over models with more BTU is this is under 50lbs. The AC is lighter and smaller and not bulky. So far it was a good value - decent BTU for the price. Ended up buying a second one. Haven't owned it long enough to review the longevity or durability.

What a nice surprise! The unit is well built and comes well packed. It’s heavy though so think strategically before moving this around your place. Pick a bigger unit for larger room (I wish I did). But the best part of this product is that it is compatible with Apple Home app. So you can set it up in the Home app and control it from there. I am abroad and it’s cooking in my house. I will set this up to cool down my room the day I come home.

While not the most efficient choice for an a/c according to the electric bill, I did not want a window unit. Self evaporating system works great. I have not had to drain it for any reason yet. It makes my 13x10 bed room chilly in no time leaving it around 71-72 degrees on the temp. The unit does cycle consistently once desired temperature is reached. Wish the auto mode would let you adjust the temperature. It stays on fan constantly at 73 degrees and only kicks on the compressor as needed to cool back down. The app is pretty much the only way I use it. Buttons are finicky and you adjust on button it might register 3 presses or just bug out so I stick to the app. This a/c is prefect for those who need a unit they may have to move around or do not want a heavy unit to put in the window.

Unboxing this unit I was surprises at how heavy it is. One of the first tricky thing was connecting the pieces to the ends to secure them.after you get them connected, installing it in the window is simple. One of the features is the simplicity of buttons on the top of the unit. It has features that are easy to understand and set up was very easy. After scanning the QR code, you can download the app, it was very simple. This units features includes three fan speeds, it has air conditioner, fan and a dehumidifier function which is great in a house that is stuffy and moist. This unit covers 300 square feet for cooling, with a washable filter and comes with handles and wheels to be able to slide it from room to room because this unit is quite heavy ( a little over 50 pounds0. It comes with a one year warranty and all the oil app instructions This unit restarts automatically if you power were to go out and one of the greatest features is that you can control this with your voice . If you are on the fence about this unit, go ahead and get it, it is worth a try, you will love it.

Our main floor AC died on us last month. We can't afford a new one just yet so we decided to get one of these to cool off the bedroom and then hopefully make it until fall (when home HVAC prices tend to come down). only about 2 months left in summer so we felt this was the best alternative for now. PLus, I'm sure it will come in handy other times when/if we lost power due to storms. Can plug it into our portable generator and be ready to go (for one room) Anyway, this is working great in our main bedroom. I like how it can easily be rolled around and then easily connected to a window with the included insert. Makes it much more portable than a window unit. Cooled off the room great and it has some nice features including a timer, sleep mode (a little quiter) and a rotating fan to distribute the air better for the room. It also uses the "smartlife" app. I already had this installed for other devices so its nice to just "add" another device instead of having yet ANOTHER app for devices. All in all a good unit to purchase if you are looking to just cool off a room. I plan to probably also wheel it into my wife's home offie at times and if needed.

I’ve been using the TCL 7,000 BTU Smart Portable AC for a bit now, and I’m impressed. Pros: Super easy to install. Took just a few minutes to set up with no tools needed. Surprisingly quiet. It’s not silent, but way quieter than I expected for a portable unit. Cools really well. The airflow is strong and it drops the room temperature fast. Decent on power. I haven’t noticed a huge spike in electricity usage so far. Overall, it’s a solid pick if you need to cool a small to medium room. I’d recommend it!

I live in Southeast Texas. Last year was tough on many of us with power outages. In two separate weather events I was without power for five or more days in a row. With our heat and humidity being without air conditioning isn’t just uncomfortable, it's dangerous. I have done things to be better prepared and having a small portable air conditioner was part of the plan. Because I needed a small size and energy efficiency, the TCL 300 Sq. Ft. 7,000 BTU 3-in-1 Smart Portable Air Conditioner seems to be mostly what I needed. TCL is a major manufacturer who makes world class products of all types. This Air Conditioner has some features I won’t use such as the Wi-Fi and mobile app support. This is a great feature for those that will use their air conditioner on a more continuous basis than I need. It does have the features I do need. Probably the most important feature I wanted was good support for water drainage. The air conditioner has both manual and continuous condensation drainage including auto shutoff. The controls on both the included remote and on top of the unit are easy to use and understand. The fan has two manual speeds and also an auto mode. The fan could be quieter in its low speed setting but it's not annoying. The packaging was very easy to open and I appreciated that. The included instructions are done well and clear to understand. My only real complaint is the quality of the window slider and exhaust hose hardware. The exhaust hose outlet for the window doesn’t have any outside facing screen. The flexible hose fit in the hose inlets and outlets could be better. I think this is where TCL cut some quality. It's serviceable but a bit disappointing. The included accessories work in both horizontal and vertical installations. When running the air deflector can be set to oscillate or to a fixed position. You can also use different fan, sleep and smart modes. Finally the unit has two removable air filters that are cleaned with soap and water. Overall a nice and fully featured package.

This is a portable air conditioner. It works. However, I struggled to find reasons to think that it is any better than similar units sold in previous decades. DESIGN INNOVATIONS Air conditioner tech has come a long way over the past 30 years, with some of the best units being able to run whisper-quiet and with SEER ratings into the 20s or higher. Unfortunately, I don’t see much to distinguish this unit from an old unit I had from the 1990s, except for the fact that it will connect to some smart homes. The best A/C units have a digitally controlled compressor to vary the speed as needed and keep the noise to a minimum; and a variable speed fan to move cool air as needed to keep the room comfortable. This has neither: it’s either on or off, and when it’s on it rattles and grinds away like you’d expect from a 30-year-old air conditioner. Granted, the case screws are tight and it doesn’t have any rust on it, so arguably it’s better than my old unit… I guess. The smart features are nice, as you would expect. The app lets you turn it on and off from remote, and set programs so for example it could turn on when you arrive home or at a certain time of day or when the outdoor temperature meets a certain threshold. It is even, apparently, Matter compatible, though when I tried to add it to my Apple Home I got a message saying that it isn’t supported yet. Maybe someday it will be! For now, it says it works with Alexa and Google Home, but I didn’t test it personally. Beyond controlling the unit, though, I didn’t see any other smart home features like reporting the current temperature/humidity of the room or how much energy it’s presently using. It would be nice to see these sensors visible in my smart home. INSTALLATION One of the best things about portable air conditioners like this one is that they are easy to position and install. This unit is on casters, so even though it is quite heavy it is easy to move around. It comes with a 5-foot exhaust hose and a kit to mount the exhaust in a window. While the kit will fit any window opening 4” wide by anywhere from 20.5” to nearly 5 feet, it does require cutting some of the plastic pieces for an opening more than 20.5” and less than 30.26”. In my space, I found the 5-foot exhaust hose a bit limiting. I’d rather position the unit farther away from the window, so it’s more in the center of my space. It tuns out that the exhaust uses a standard size 6” duct. I was able to find another 5 feet of duct/hose and a connector for about $35 from a hardware store. NOT ENERGY EFFICIENT The marketing copy claims that this unit is “Energy Efficient.” The only energy-efficient feature is that it will automatically turn off after a timer. Everything else about it is the opposite of energy efficient. The CEER rating is 7 (EER 3.41). According to TCL’s own blog (from 2023), a good EER rating for an A/C unit is 8.5 and above. A higher number is better. Portable and window air conditioners generally are less efficient because of their compact design. In short, the hot side and the cold side are right next to each other, so it’s hard to keep the cold side cold efficiently. This unit has the usual issues, but there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to incorporate new innovation into an old design. In fact, a quick look at other units sold by Best Buy leads me to believe that this is the least energy efficient portable A/C unit of this size available. Furthermore, there is not much insulation inside the unit to keep the cold parts cold and the hot parts from heating up your space. The little bit of insulation I saw seems to be more about reducing noise and vibration than heat isolation. There’s a paltry few mm of foam insulation between part of the cold side and hot side, but otherwise there’s no insulation around the exhaust coils or the exhaust air duct. Even cheap window units usually have an inch of styrofoam separating the two sides. Another energy-wasting design point is the fact that it exhausts conditioned air to the outside. This is common among portable air conditioners, but the better ones will draw outside air into the unit to cool it. This one opts for the simpler design that uses inside (conditioned) air to cool the unit. This means you are basically cooling air twice, once to cool the unit and again to cool your space. Running the AC draws between 800 and over 1000 watts continuously. That’s a huge amount of power. Even at a 50% or so duty cycle, it would run up my electric bill in a hurry. Fortunately (or not), the noise is such that I definitely won’t be keeping this thing on 24x7. NOISY Even on the fan-only mode on the lowest setting, this unit is loud enough to be an annoyance. I have to raise my voice to be heard over it, and I would not want to try to watch TV with it running in the same room. Noise can be a problem for portable or window A/C units in general, but this unit doesn’t seem to contain any innovation that would reduce the problem. According to the specifications, the “minimum noise level” is 50 dB, which is louder than soft conversational voices. MINOR POINTS TCL sometimes sticks bizarre innovative features into their products. This one has a plug fixer. What is that, you ask? It’s a plastic piece that helps you re-align the prongs on the power plug in case you stepped on it and bent it somehow. The unit comes with a short condensate drain hose. Mine was apparently squashed flat during packaging/shipping and drains slowly because of it. But it still works. Technically this hose might even be an optional item under normal use, since condensate usually gets evaporated and exhausted outside. There are louvers on top that fill the width of the unit, but the opening from the fan is less than half the width. It could be much more efficient, and quieter I imagine, if the fan had a larger opening to move air through.

My bedroom is upstairs and gets considerably warmer at night. I was hoping this TCL portable air conditioner was perfect for our needs. There’s one drawback that will keep me from using it in my room and I’ll get to that, but I’ll start with the positive. Comes all assembled on wheels and all, with the exception of the vent tube and window fixings for obvious reasons. It’s a heavy little sucker, either that or I’m just getting old. I believe it’s around 50-60lbs best guess. There are handles built into the sides towards the top. All in all, the weights not an issue if taking up or down stairs, once you get it to level ground. It rolls on level ground good, although a little harder to push on carpet. It’s super easy to set everything up. Hook the vent tube up to the plastic coupling for the back of the unit, and hook it up to the plastic coupling to attach to the window components. These attach very nicely with a strong union and no issue with the vent not sealing. Nice job TCL, these are well made, not like some cheap vent tubes you’d buy from a hardware store for say a clothes dryer. You’ll have to cut the horizontal window attachment component, to fit for different window sizes. This TCL portable air conditioner will work for any window up to 59”. This AC unit is a BEAST, cools extremely fast and extremely well. Once you turn it on, the vents on the top automatically open and fluctuate up and down to disperse the cool air at different levels in your space. There are two fan levels, high and low. The lowest temp setting is 64. The remote control works great and there’s a sleep mode you can initiate. There are controls on top of the unit, but you can only use the remote to initiate sleep mode. Sleep mode gradually reduces the operation as the night progresses. The brightness of the control panel is reduced, and the fan lowered also for a more pleasant operation during nighttime. Cleaning the filters on the back of the unit is really easy. You pop them off and rinse them, then pop them right back in. You can tell they are made well , the built-in screens are strong. I don’t know how they’ll stand the test of time, but they sure look like they’ll hold up well with regular maintenance. Now for my issue with keeping this in my bedroom. The unit has to be 18” away from the window. The vent tube is really big, and for good reason, this unit is powerful. You can feel the heat venting out the tube by placing your hand on the side. Because the tube is so big, even bending the vent tube up and to the window, it’s really difficult getting it to have a small footprint in the room. (see photos). I might try to cut the tube but not sure I want to do that. I’ll more than likely end up using this unit in the main level of my home because of this. I wish the vent tube was at the top of the unit so I could bring it closer to the window in my room. That complaint aside, this unit is outstanding and I would recommend it to anyone as a well built , powerful air conditioner with great features. My concern is not enough imo to lose a star, I’m giving this 5 stars. I almost forgot, this unit works with the Smart-Life app which is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play store. Looking forward to giving my central air a break this summer, and cooling my main level with this awesome unit!

Purchased this portable AC unit right after a big heat wave started. The unit works great, efficiently cools the entire room it is in, plus keeps our hallway and other nearby rooms feeling a lot cooler than before. The manual that was included is not the most intuitive and I struggled for a bit with piecing together the hose, but eventually got there. The noise level is pretty minimal, and the only other note I'll add is that the screen brightness is kind of annoying at night if you're sensitive to lights - which is easily avoided by covering the screen display.

It does the job for a one bed room apartment. It's nice to be able to move it around. It was fairly easy to set up. I like the user interface on the unit.

Bought this to hopefully help out with the electric bill. Fairly easy to set up. Seem to drain more water than expected the first night, but since then. Hasnt been a problem. Cools quickly. To soon to know if it heps with utility bill